Dr Sharlene Swartz

Name:	Swartz, Sharlene (Dr, S.G.)
Department:	Human and Social Development
Location:	Cape Town
Telephone:	+27 (0)21 466 7874
E-mail:

Research outputs

Research Reports

Swartz, S., Van der Heijden, I., Runciman, T., Makoae, M., Rozani, A., Dube, N., Makiwane, M. & Bhana, A. (2010) 'Think for yourself - Think for tomorrow': Exploring the impact of peer-led HIV intervention and psychosocial support groups for vulnerable youth in South Africa. (Report prepared for the Harvard School of Public Health and the Centre for the Support of Peer Education).

This report, building on Swartz, Van Der Heijden, Makoae et al. (2009), offers a contribution towards understanding three important phenomena in South Africa: the widespread effect of HIV/AIDS, the ongoing needs of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC1) living in poverty and made extraordinarily vulnerable by the AIDS pandemic, and the promise of peer education to contribute towards meeting th...

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Swartz, S., Van der Heijden, I., Makoae, M., Richter, L., Rozani, A., Runciman, T. & Ndimande, N. (2009) 'With a little help from my friends': exploring the impact of peer-led HIV intervention and psychosocial support groups for orphaned and vulnerable children in South Africa. (Report produced for the Harvard Centre for the Support of Peer Education, 31 March).

This study operates at the nexus of three important contemporary phenomena: the widespread HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa; the psychosocial needs of impoverished children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS; and peer education, a technology that is increasingly being used to deliver HIV/AIDS prevention. The following review will explore each of these aspects in order to deepen understanding of the ...

Tamasane, T., Makoae, M., Swartz, S., Bhana, A., Mokuku, S., Mankayi, N. & Scott, D. (2011) Situational analysis of services for orphans and other vulnerable children in Lesotho: final report. (Commissioned by the Government of Lesotho, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, January).

Lesotho is an impoverished country (labelled a Least Developed Country by the United Nations (UN)) with a population of 1.8 million people 70% of whom are under the age of 18 years old (BOS, 2007). Poverty levels are very high and are mostly driven by high levels of unemployment. The unemployment rate in Lesotho is conservatively estimated at 35% (BOS, 2007). Lesotho has the third highest HIV p...

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Books and chapters in books

Richter, L., Chikovore, J., Makusha, T., Bhana, A., Mokomane, Z., Swartz, S. & Makiwane, M. (2011) Fatherhood and families. In: Department of Economic and Social Affairs Men in families and family policy in a changing world. New York: United Nations.

In this chapter, we examine fathers and father figures, and their changing roles in different cultural contexts; we draw attention to the notion of social fatherhood, which describes the care and support of men for children who are not necessarily their biological offspring; we review the evidence for the beneficial educational, social and psychological effects on children of father engagement...

Swartz, S. (2011) 'Moral ecology' and 'moral capital': tools towards a sociology of moral education from a South African ethnography. In: Swartz, S. & Taylor, M. (eds). Moral education in sub-Saharan Africa: culture, economics, conflict and AIDS. Oxon: Routledge. 39-62.

Swartz, S. (2011) Introduction: the pain and the promise of moral education in sub-Saharan Africa. In: Swartz, S. & Taylor, M. (eds). Moral education in sub-Saharan Africa: culture, economics, conflict and AIDS. Oxon: Routledge. 1-6.

Swartz, S. & Taylor, M. (eds). (2011) Moral education in sub-Saharan Africa: culture, economics, conflict and AIDS. Oxon: Routledge.

The term `moral? has had a chequered history in sub-Saharan Africa, mainly due to the legacy of colonialism and Apartheid (in South Africa). In contrast to moral education as a vehicle of cultural imperialism and social control, this volume shows moral education to be concerned with both private and public morality, with communal and national relationships between human beings, as well as betwe...

Swartz, S. (2009) Ikasi: the moral ecology of South Africa's township youth. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Here is an engaging account of the moral lives of young black South Africans once the struggle against apartheid ended and took away their object of political resistance. It shows how partial-parenting, partial-schooling, and pervasive poverty contributes to how a group of young people construct right and wrong and what rules govern their behavior.

Swartz, S. & Bhana, A. (2009) Teenage tata: voices of young fathers in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.

Teenage Tata: Voices of young fathers in South Africa provides a fresh and in-depth portrait of impoverished young South African men who became fathers while teenagers. It provides space for their articulate and impassioned voices to be heard amidst the outcry against the absence of fathers, and offers insights into young fathers' personal, emotional, financial and cultural struggles as they co...

Journal Articles

Bhana, A., Swartz, S. & Davids, A. (2010) Standards for the reporting of sex/sexual activity of minors in a research context. South African Medical Journal. 100(10):642-644.

Hendricks, L., Swartz, S. & Bhana, A. (2010) Why young men in South Africa plan to become teenage fathers: implications for the development of masculinities within contexts of poverty. Journal of Psychology in Africa. 20(4):527-536.

Hendricks et al. drawing on in-depth interviews with young fathers (n=37) aged 14 to 20 in impoverished communities in South Africa, this study focuses on the young men who intentionally planned to have children while still teenagers. It interrogates their reasons for doing so, as well as their responses to their impending fatherhood and reactions after the birth of their child. Reasons such as...

McLaughlin, C. & Swartz, S. (2011) Can we use young people's knowledge to develop teachers and HIV-related education?. Prospects. 41:429-444.

Despite recent progress in meeting the goals of the Education for All agenda, certain groups of young people are particularly vulnerable to exclusion and underachievement, including children with HIV/AIDS, children living in poverty, and children with disabilities. HIV/AIDS has reduced many young people's rights to access education, to live a full and healthy life, and to have a life as a chil...

Swartz, S. (2011) 'Going deep' and 'giving back': strategies for exceeding ethical expectations when researching amongst vulnerable youth. Qualitative Research. 11(1):47-68.

This article interrogates how research amongst vulnerable populations, especially youth, may be designed and implemented to exceed the usual standards of research ethics. It describes the dual aims of ethical research within an emancipatory framework as 'going deep' through utilizing 'an ethics of parallax perspectives'; and 'giving back' by employing an 'intentional ethics of reciprocation'. I...

Swartz, S. (2011) Being turned inside out: researching youth, morality and restitution from the global South. Journal of Moral Education. 40(3):407-415.

This article maps my journey as a scholar engaged in the research of youth morality (located in the Global South); as a beneficiary of injustice having grown up as a white South African; as a navigator of complex personal histories (discovering my mixed race family origins); and arriving at restitution as a career research focus. It reflects on the experience of being turned inside out through ...

Swartz, S. (2010) 'Moral ecology' and 'moral capital': tools towards a sociology of moral education from a South African ethnography. Journal of Moral Education. 39(3):305-327.

Research and pedagogy in the field of morality and moral education has long been dominated by philosophical and psychological disciplines. Although sociological studies and theorising in the field have not been absent, it has been limited and non-systematic. Drawing on a study that investigated the lived morality of a group of young South Africans growing up in the aftermath of Apartheid and in...

Swartz, S. (2010) 5 Voices in the dialogue: on morality and values. HSRC Review. 8(3):20-21.

SHARLENE Swartz's book Ikasi: The moral ecology of South Africa's township youth (Wits University Press, 2010) describes a youth voice on morality. Here she speaks about its contribution to South Africa's national dialogue. Before we embark on a national dialogue on morality and values, there are important questions to ask, namely: who currently speaks about morality?; what are each gro...

Swartz, S. (2010) Editorial: the pain and the promise of moral education in sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Moral Education. 39(3):267-272.

The key question that this Special Issue seeks to address is: what contribution can scholars from Africa concerned with moral education make to the multiple issues of culture, conflict, economics and HIV/AIDS that, while not peculiar to sub-SaharanAfrica, are certainly acute in this region of the world? Furthermore, are there ways in which this work, frequently undertaken in difficult circumsta...

Swartz, S., Chikovore, J. & Richter, L. (2010) Men & morality: a new HSRC-led research collaborative. HSRC Review. 8(1):9.

What does it take to be a 'good man'? Men throughout the world are frequently subjected to negative representation. In the South African context this is no different, say SHARLENE SWARTZ, JEREMIAH CHIKOVORE and LINDA RICHTER, who are embarking on a study focusing on men's morality and considering how 'being good' is in fact an asset (or 'capital').

Swartz, S. & Bhana, A. (2009) Teenage tata: young fathers take responsibility. HSRC Review. 7(3):4-5.

Discussions around teenage pregnancy have to date focused on young mothers. However, in keeping with the HSRC's focus on fatherhood, a new study highlights the voices and experiences of young fathers in poor communities, report Sharlene Swartz and Arvin Bhana.

Swartz, S. (2008) Being good in a bad world: what's 'moral' for township youth?. HSRC Review. 6(2):7-8.

How does growing up in a township affect your moral formation? Does it impact negatively or positively? Are township youth more or less moral than their middle-class counterparts? These were the key questions that led Sharlene Swartz to conduct her doctoral research on the moral lives of South Africa's township youth.

Swartz, S. (2008) Is Kwaito South African hip-hop?: why the answer matters and who it matters to. The World of Music. 50(2):15-33.

This paper asks whether South Africa's kwaito is an indigenous form of hip-hop or an original "spectacular vernacular" and considers how the difference between kwaito and hip-hop is discursively constructed and performed. The provenance, politics, economics and style of kwaito provides the locations for this comparison with hip-hop. While its provenance is similar to that of hip-hop, understan...

Van der Heijden, I. & Swartz, S. (2010) Bereavement, silence and culture within a peer-led HIV/AIDS-prevention strategy for vulnerable children in South Africa. African Journal of AIDS Research. 9(1):41-50.

In addressing the psychosocial effects of the HIV and AIDS pandemic among vulnerable children, the issue of bereavement appears inadequately addressed. Amid the global discourse on children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS, this paper explores how cultural contexts and social environments in South Africa shape children's experience of grief. The argument draws on a number of qualita...